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Transient Global Amnesia and its treatment

Posted by kyoto @kyoto, Feb 12, 2019

Hello,
As I have written elsewhere on this site, I was treated surgically for a large, subarachnoid cyst (in the velum interpositum) in the summer of 2017. I had been experiencing severe amnesia. The operation was successful in that my memory improved. The surgeon warned of the risk of "convulsions" in the surgical plan, and over the following year or more, I had ongoing occurrences of memory loss. Last December, my surgeon started me on epilepsy medication, as a treatment for these memory failures. From my reading, I took it that I had Transient Epileptic Amnesia. Today, I went for my latest check-up and to get my next prescription of epilepsy (Vimpat aka Lacosamide), and he told me that in fact I have Transient Global Amnesia. (TGA)
So far so good, but I immediately checked the medical literature on TGA, and the first paper I read (published in QJM) says that TGA doesn't respond to anti-epilepsy drugs. https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/107/11/915/1512956
I thought Lacosamide is an anti-epilepsy drug. If TGA doesn't respond to it, why has the doc prescribed it? Vimpat is a non-generic drug and it's really expensive.
Does anyone have a similar situation or knowledge about TGA or its treatment?
Many thanks,
David

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ghia | @ghia | 6 hours ago
In reply to @pmdel "I’m a 72 year old female. Two weeks ago, I had what the doctors in the..." + (show)
Profile picture for Phyllis D. @pmdel

I’m a 72 year old female. Two weeks ago, I had what the doctors in the ER called TGA (Transient Global Amnesia). It came on suddenly and lasted all day. The next day, I was like myself again! So, the day before, I couldn’t remember what day (or year) it was. I couldn’t remember anything about the morning or that my daughter called me (twice)! or that she lives in TN (she’s been there over 20 years and I’m in NY). I had a headache, was confused and disoriented, dizzy, off balance, nauseated, but no vomiting, no fever, and vitals (and sugar) were good. At the hospital, they did a ‘stroke workup’, and other things too. An EKG, chest X-ray, abdominal X-ray, Brain MRI, and EEG! They woke me every hour to take my vitals, sugar and do a few quick neurology tests. Took a couple urine tests and multiple blood draws! Kept me overnight for observation. Ruled everything out because they found nothing (except I was getting too much thyroid medication, so they lowered the dose) and told me to follow up with my family doctor and Neurologist. Since they found nothing else wrong, my symptoms were significant for TGA! They said it wasn’t very common and it will not likely happen again! I hope they’re right about that!!
I hope all goes well for you too! Hugs! 🤗

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@pmdel wow. That is so very similar. Except my brain was a bit fuzzy for about a week and my vision was a bit woozy too. My neurologist thinks it may be a seizure disorder. I guess more tests.

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